Consultation on Further and Higher Education and the Sustainable Development Goals Report

On 25th-26th January stakeholders from around the UK and beyond met at St George's House to discuss to discuss Further and Higher Education and the SDGs. Rebecca Petford (EAUC-Scotland Programme Manager) was invited as a stakeholder to contribute on behalf of EAUC.

The Consultation Report introduction summarises the process:

"We established the space for a Consultation at which we invited stakeholders from different parts of the sector to come together and discuss the role of Further and Higher Education (FHE) at this time. This 24-hour consultation (25th-26th January 2018) was convened at St George’s House, situated within Windsor Castle, as part of the regular programme of consultations organised on matters of public interest. St George's House is "a physical and intellectual space set in the narrative of history but focused firmly on the future". For each consultation, invited key representatives are hosted together over 24 hours to discuss, debate and reflect on the consultation topic.

"Academics, students, senior managers, employers, funders and policy makers shared experiences, knowledges and expectations. The overarching aim of the Consultation was to explore how we can best equip tertiary education students with the capacities to address real world local and global challenges, within the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The questions we addressed were:

1. Why and how might we deepen sustainability education in the tertiary sector?

2. How might tertiary institutions engage with the SDGs?

3. What might possible consequences be, in relation to graduate capacities and wider outcomes?

"We saw FHE as recognising the roles that are played in developing the graduates of the future; in offering learning to many of our brightest young people; but also, in maintaining a critical friend voice and holding government and private and third sectors to account; reinforcing policy support and researching implementation. The focus in this Consultation was on education, but we were aware of the intersections of education with research and impact in wider notions of scholarship, and with institutional operations and community engagement.

"This was the second of two workshops looking at the UN Sustainable Development Goals within education, following one focusing on Young People and the SDGs in November 2017."

The full report, summarising all presentation contributions as well as the outcomes of the discussions, is available to download from the right of this page.